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 Philadelphia Flyers' Jeff Carter and Montreal Canadiens' Scott Gomez get into a small dustup during Game 4 on Saturday. (Eric Bolte/QMI Agency) |
MONTREAL — The trap is set.
The Montreal Canadiens have the Philadelphia Flyers right where they want them.
Comfortably in the driver’s seat of the Eastern Conference final.
The magical mystery tour that is the Habs’ 2010 playoff run has seen them face elimination five times, thrice against the Washington Capitals and twice versus the Pittsburgh Penguins.
They are 5-0 in those games, having outscored the opponent 17-8 despite being outshot 210-111.
In taking a 3-1 series lead into Monday night’s Game 5 at Wachovia Center, the Flyers must surely be nervous.
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“We’ve been through it, we know what it takes to be successful,” Montreal defenceman Josh Gorges said at the team’s practice facility in Brossard, Que., on Sunday. “Our backs are up against the wall, it’s desperation time. We don’t have a choice now.
“Nobody wants this ride to end, so guys are going to come out and give everything we have.”
Sputtering as they tried to go forward, the Habs hit a ditch Saturday at the Bell Centre, playing quite poorly in a 3-0 loss during which they managed just 17 shots on Flyers goalie Michael Leighton.
A Maxim Lapierre wrister from the side of the net was the only save Leighton had to make over a span of 27 minutes, from late in the first period until early in the third.
It was during that time Claude Giroux scored what turned out to be the winner, taking advantage of a broken strap on Gorges’ skate shield to step around the blue liner and in alone on Jaroslav Halak.
The bad break was still a hot topic 20 hours after the fact.
“Every time I would turn or rotate to the right, I would step on it,” said Gorges, whose equipment was damaged 15-20 seconds before the goal by a Simon Gagne wrist shot. “I tried ripping it off, even the ref told me to get rid of it, but I couldn’t get it off in time. That’s a big unfortunate incident.”
Defenceman Hal Gill says something similar has happened to him in practice, but never before during a game. Gorges also experienced the malfunction one other time, against Anaheim, but that time he was able to pull it off during the play.
This latest incident has him considering ditching the boot protectors altogether.
“There’s so many pluses to it,” he said. “You look at them, and mine are scratched up and it shows how many times you’re getting hit in the foot. But it’s too crucial, if something like that ever happens again.
“It’s frustrating. You’re talking the proper measures so you don’t get hurt, you can just go out and play, then something like that happens. I was pissed. I came back to the bench, and it’s no fault of anyone’s, but I was ready to just yell. What to do you yell at?
“That’s why I’ll think twice what I do (Monday) night. I don’t want anything, and I don’t think anybody does, hindering our chance to keep this going.”
The Habs, of course, will be going nowhere but the golf course unless they can generate some offence. Leighton barely broke a sweat in Game 4.
Mike Cammalleri has six of his playoff-leading 13 goals in elimination games, but he’s going to need a little help.
“We need everyone,” said Gill. “We can’t look to him to score goals, we need everyone on board.
“I think the big thing we have to be concerned with is moving the puck into their end and playing in our offensive zone. By doing that we’re going to generate chances, just by spending time there.”
Added Gorges: “We’ve got to look back to how we were successful in Game 3. We came up the ice together, we weren’t fancy. If we needed to, we put pucks behind them and went to work. You get pucks off cycles, those kind of shots, guys crashing the net, that’s what we need.
“We can’t have guys try to do it on their own. It doesn’t work at this time of year. You’re playing against too good of a team.”
The status of winger Tom Pyatt (upper body) will be a game-time decision. Pyatt has been a key performer on an effective line with Dominic Moore and Lapierre.
“We’ve shown resiliency and I think at this point all that matters for us is our preparation for (Monday) night’s game. That’s our focus and I know that we’ll be prepared and we’ll be ready to compete,” said coach Jacques Martin, who was asked if his team was tired.
“You are tired, but that’s part of playoff hockey. It’s two months. It’s a marathon. I think we enjoy the challenge.”
They’d enjoy living to fight another day even more.
“We’ve put ourselves in this hole, and it is what it is,” said Gill. “We’ve got to go and win a game.”